Dick Meyer from Northville, South Dakota, writes in the Pierre Capital Journal that now is a terrible time for Governor Dennis Daugaard to be recruiting more corporate dairies from California:
Because drought is affecting a large area of the U.S., there is an extreme shortage of hay in the area. A lot of farmers and ranchers with livestock are struggling to find enough feed to maintain their herds and the high cost of hay has taken away the hope of having a profit this year. This is not a good time to try to get more cows into the state to compete for the already depleted feed supplies in South Dakota.
Out-of-state dairies not only will put the small family farm dairies out of business, they also will put a lot of cow-calf producers out of business.
The rise in land and feed costs has put a lot of South Dakota’s dairies out of business because they could not make a profit. How is having more cooperate dairies going to make any of them profitable? Will someone ask the governor how many farmers and ranchers he plans on putting out of business to make room for corporate dairies? [Dick Meyer, letter to the editor, Pierre Capital Journal, 2013.03.08].
Meyer praises District 19 Rep. Stace Nelson and his Hanson County neighbors for protecting small family farms and the environment from a 7000-head mega-dairy that big dairy man and Ag Secretary Walt Bones really wanted to see built.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Agriculture and SDSU Extension continue their dog-and-pony show around the state, talking about the need to get more young producers into agriculture (average age of cattle producers in South Dakota: 55.7) while supporting the "get big or get out" policies that make it harder for young entrepreneurs to enter the business.
If I were a young farmer going into the milk industry, I want to raise Aspartame.
Most of the small dairy farms are already gone. There are only a handful in Lake County.
Cory, maybe what is driving the small producer out isn't just the high hay, corn and land prices, but the never-ending work of milking cows. How many people do you know want to work 365 days a year?
I would sign up today if Stace Nelson were to run for Governor in 2014.
MB makes a great point. Most of the production ag guys I know do not have any livestock because they prefer the grain farming and have much more free time.
The Federal Government is also making it harder for the small guys with massive farm subsidies. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer with crony capitalism used by Bush, Obama, Daugaard, Noem etc.
South Dakota has a climate more advantagous to Beef. Minnesota and Wisconsin have a climate and land more suitible to dairy. That is why they were historically going in that direction. So why not build on what we are good at rather than to try to take the cheap cheese market. We do not have the population for more fluid milk sales, same reason that South Dakota is not a great place to do business- we do not have the population to have enough customers. Same reason the consultants said Sioux Falls is to small for such a big events center. We want to think we are big and can do anything, fact is we are not. Enjoy the sparce population and lots of open space and accept that we can not attract lots of big business in a profitable way because of it.
If South Dakota wants to do dairy, it should look east not west. You can raid California for corporate owned dairy production, or build dairy from the bottom up, like Wisconsin.
Wisconsin's dairy industry utilizes small dairies owned by family farmers. Much production is marketed through coops. A lot of dairy production goes into small specialty cheese production. Another large slice goes into pizza cheese production, which has also attracted both corporate and speciality pizza markets. You really want dairy to be the base of a value-added chain that employs people, not just a dead end to the corporate vats.
Tim Johnson is our Senate candidate but stay and fight for our party's nominee for governor.
Donald summed up it up perfectly. I was at a MOSES conference recently in LaCrosse, Wisc. The organic dairy industry, if I can use that term, is flourishing and looking forward to more expansion. Most of the organic dairies focus on families, small herds, and stewardship of land and community. We have that opportunity to do the same here in SD if we wish. BTW--most of these organic dairies are run by families who do work 7 days/week, year around. They love their lifestyle and have community to help.
As Charlie knows, I grew up on a dairy farm and unless you have lived the lifestyle you cannot really comprehend NEVER having a day off or being able to take a family vacation for years at a time. It's easy for me to get up early in the morning to this day and it still feels weird not to be doing chores at 5:30 in the evening. Very few people are willing to work 14 hours a day just to satisfy a feeling of stewardship and community.
I am not a big fan of confinement units. Too many of any animal are going to stink and have the potential to add to air and water pollution, but are there enough small farmers willing to sacrifice their families to maintain the ideal we have in our heads from the past to make up the difference.
Michael, My Uncle and Aunt were dairy farmers their whole lives - some of it in SD but much of it in Wisconsin. When they lived in SD - no, they couldn't take any time off. Simply not anyone around to do the milking for even a day or two - LOW POPULATION of dairy farmers. When they moved to Wisconsin and were surrounded by other dairy farming families - it was pretty easy to find a neighbor kid, or two or three to do the milking if they wanted time off. For example, they fulfilled a life-long dream of spending a month in Europe one year. You CANNOT judge the life of a dairy farmer simply on the basis of being one in SD. The lives of dairy farmers in other parts of the world are quite different.
Donald, Charlie, Richard, that's remarkable perspective on how Wisconsin keeps the small-dairy model working. That approach isn't on South Dakota's radar at all, is it?
This isn't Wisconsin.
How many of you would've liked to get up this morning at 5 am to milk cows for NO reward? It doesn't make financial sense to operate a dairy farm right now.
Indeed, this isn't Wisconsin: they are able to find a way to keep the small-dairy model working, while our state government shows no interest in it.
I have the privilege of living near 5 small organic dairies, they get up every morning, milk every evening and also have pigs, chickens, beef cattle and grow their own feed. We have beef cattle and through the worst months of the year weather-wise they must be fed twice a day. We also have other animals and raise a variety of hay and grain. We all have 24 hours a day to spend. Why not spend it doing something meaningful? The dairy families do not get much time off, but they do get some time because they help each other out. My father in law was 92 when he died and until the last few weeks of his life he was outside every day and actively working, his life had meaning. So his kids never went to Disneyworld. They don't feel cheated.
When I was a teen, my Dad brother and I each had every third Sunday off. Then I moved to the state of Washington and milked three hundred cows with two days off. Hard to adjust to a day off when milking starts at one am and one pm then try to sleep one night. But still better than working everyday.
Ya want entrepreneurs? Turn to the 15 year olds.
Kids uncle turned from robust to skeleton with pancreatic cancer in 90 days. Kid was pissed, wanting to know why. The corporate healthcare test for pancreatic cancer is 60+ years old and only detects late stage pancreatic cancer. Kid did his research on Google and Wikipedia. His foolproof idea detects early pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancer. It costs 3 cents and takes 5 minutes. He presented his idea to 200 healthcare establishment labs. 199 said NO. One said maybe. He proofed his idea at Johns Hopkins in 7 months.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=n9yuAhusVts
Small dairy men and women CHOOSE their life style and its not for everyone! They love their chosen profession! And of course there are days, they'd like to throw in the towel, but everyone has days like that! Have any of you talked to a truck driver thats hauls milk??? I get the impression that there is plenty of liquid milk to go around to keep the currant plants busy! I think the plants want more cows to keep prices low so they can make alot of money! I think the plants could pay little dairys more money but the plants charge them more(small dairys) to pick up their milk than the large dairys! Large dairys pump into tanker semi trailers and small dairys pump into a smaller bulk tanks and small dairy yards are not built to let semi's come whippen up to the tank as the yards are smaller! Its my understanding that Lake Norden uses the semi's that are bringing milk into the plant as holding tanks and the drivers sit there for 4 or 5 hours until Lake Norden get the milk used up out of a storage silo at differant times of the year! Of all this talk about dairys, I have never heard anybody talk to the drivers, they know whats happening in the real world while plant owners are blowing smoke!
John, I saw that kid on a news story on CBS one morning! Very smart kid, but the healthcare system won't accept that idea, as it doesn't create enough cash to keep the big money wheel turning! I beleive healthcare would be affordable with people like him running it!
There is no small dairy producers. In the realm of things South Dakota is very small in all productions compared to other states. a 6K head dairy or feedlot is HUGE in South Dakota, yet is average or below average in many other states.
No one wants to milk any more. 10 years ago there was 15 dairies in the area, though many of them still milk only 1 of them has been sold to a younger farmer.
I beg to differ JoeBoo, we have a few around here, but here is the thing. Most don't sell to the local cheese plant because of their get big or get out message. So they sell to an organic cooperative. I have seen the people who literally weep when their vocation has been taken from them because they did not want to get bigger and could not afford the cartage.
Eventually mother nature will have her revenge on monuculture farming, not farming, ag production. Animal and grain factories.
Sounds like someone has been reading her Wendell Berry.
When you see 3,000 plus eager and earnest organic producers in one setting like at MOSES in LaCrosse, you know there is energy!! Young families are seeking to enter organic dairy production. Many have already started. These young people were at the conference--obvious they do get off the farm.
An eager reader sends this note about state propaganda for big dairies in northeast SD:
"We understand there was a planting clinic held at a local implement dealer's this week. We were so amazed to learn that that they had a woman come in to speak that spent close to an hour glorifying CAFOS. Did this dealer pay to get this speaker? Who would want to go to a planting meeting and listen to the wool being pulled over their eyes? And who would pay her to do this? Would it be like the meetings being held at livestock sales building pushing the future of farming as CAFOS? Would the barns owners be paying those speakers? Would the implement dealers be paying this woman to come in and speak an hour? Does the state realize that economic development is not pushing the state's farmers out of business by putting CAFO's in with tax incentives, building incentives all paid for by the citizens of the state."
Does this mean that at every implement and insurance and seed company, who plan gatherings/meals for farmers at this time of year, the small to midsize farmer must endure an hour of propoganda?